Theatre reviews by Australian journalist

Monthly Archives: April 2014

Even with its stellar cast, which includes Toni Collette and Michael C. Hall, this new play by Will Eno fails to keep momentum and pretty much flat lines in the second half due to both its humour and its existentialist sentiment wearing too thin.

Five-time Tony award winner Audra McDonald, a true Broadway goddess, plays Billie Holiday to perfection in a one woman monologue/concert that transports the audience to a recreation of the final concert given by one of the world’s greatest jazz singers.

Daniel Radcliffe is the obvious draw card for this latest Broadway production by British director, Michael Grandage, and his company, but there are many more attractions in this fine Martin McDonagh play about an Irish boy trying to find his own way in life.

Steinbeck’s well loved novella/play has not been seen on Broadway in 40 years and it makes a welcome return especially in the very reliable hands of director Anna D. Shapiro and her two stars, Chris O’Dowd and, man of the moment, James Franco, who play Lennie and George.

This new play is inspired by events that took place in and around the Chevalier d’Eon Resort in the Catskill Mountains, New York State, in 1962 at time of racial segregation in the USA and when homosexuality was a crime. Fierstein has brought an interesting group of men who dress and identify themselves as female to life with vitality and empathy.

When a difficult long-past chapter of your life comes howling through your front door determined to disrupt your present state of domestic bliss, things get a little confronting and much soul searching and checks and balances of the heart are to be completed. This is the primary concern of McNally’s latest play where Cal Porter (Frederick Weller) is paid a visit by Katharine Gerard (Tyne Daly) the mother of his late boyfriend Adrian. Adrian died of AIDs in 1994. Katharine has much pain and anger that has fermented over the two decades since losing her son. 68-year-old Daly who propels the play beautifully conveys this passion. Mothers and Sons portrays true pathos.

THE RABBLE Theatre Company has reimagined Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein where both the scientist, Victor Frankenstein and his monster are both women. Shelly’s novel is spooky enough, but the company’s take on this classic ensures its questions regarding humanity and the preciousness of life and relationships are still there but, with some clever and outrageous staging, these themes plus more are conveyed boldly and light is shone into the dark corners of our humanity. This performance is confronting and provocative, be warned!